Woman abandoned in Fairfax as a baby finds her rescuers 20 years later (Need a smile?)

[Are_grits_groceries]

Christopher Astle and Emily Yanich were teenage pals strolling back from a 7-Eleven that afternoon in late summer -- two ordinary kids on an ordinary Wednesday after school -- when they found the abandoned baby.

It was Sept. 6, 1989. They discovered the newborn wrapped in towels at the front door of a townhouse in their Fairfax County complex and took the infant to Emily's, where her stepfather called police.

The whole thing was over pretty quickly. The authorities took the baby girl, who was later adopted. Chris and Emily, both 15, went on with their lives, although Emily often cried when she told people the story, and the two called each other every Sept. 6.

Twenty years passed.

Then, on Dec. 2, a college student named Mia Fleming sent them both a message via Facebook: Might they be the same Chris and Emily who had once found a baby left at a stranger's door?

If so, she just wanted to say thanks.

After all these years, the little girl they had found had found them.

The story of Mia, Chris and Emily, recounted by the three over the past few days, is a nativity narrative for modern times. There were no heavenly hosts that warm afternoon in 1989, just the distant ambulance sirens after the call to 911. But the event seemed blessed all the same.

Chris and Emily, both now 35, stayed close friends as they grew up, moved and married, bound by their rescue of the baby.

Mia, once she learned her story, never forgot them, and after numerous tries over several years managed at last, through the power of the Internet, to track them down. "I didn't know how they would feel," she said.

Emily said: "It's like a miracle. . . . My heart is filled now. There was always a little spot missing. "

Chris said, "It's the best Christmas present I have ever gotten."
<snip>
It turned out that the baby was less than 12 hours old, officials said later. She weighed 6 pounds, 10 1/2 ounces and was 19 inches long. She had olive skin, dark eyes and dark hair, and was in excellent health. There was no trace of her mother.

The teens later bought the baby a teddy bear -- possibly at the 7-Eleven, Chris said -- visited her in the hospital and went back to high school.

There is much more to this story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/16/AR2009121604240.html?sid=ST2009121604383

Happy Holidays!
(I needed that. :hug:)

[elleng]

1. I needed that too, and posted it earlier!

:hug:

[Berry Cool]

4. I'm glad you both posted it.

Every once in a while yo need a story like this...a reminder that there's still good in the world...and that sometimes even a couple of teenagers headed to the 7-11 to buy cigarettes can turn out to be heroes.

[midnight]

2. Thanks for sharing this story.

[kdmorris]

3. That is so sweet

I have a hard time giving up animals that I've found abandoned. I cannot imagine how they must have felt giving up an abandoned baby.

What a sweet story!!

[Nikki Stone1]

5. The other thing is that whoever the scared birth mother was will also know that

the child grew up safely. It is probable that the birth mother was another teen and that in her adult life, she regretted what she had done. This story might help her too. So many teenagers panic and do stupid things under these circumstances.